by Tara Brown
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Frank. She just wandered off. She’s probably gone exploring. Is there somewhere we shouldn’t go?”
Frank’s face reddened slightly. “No, gosh no. We just want to make sure we explain what everything is before anyone gets injured by accident, or anything like that. Or gets equipment damaged.”
Lyle crossed his arms but kept a smile on his face. “I’m sure she’s just exploring and being Gwyn. She has always been curious. I assumed that was why you picked her.”
Frank nodded. “It’s true.” His eyes lifted to meet mine at the top of the staircase. He watched me for a second before he smiled harder. “Hey, kiddo.”
I smiled. “Hi.”
“Did you go exploring?”
I nodded, going with my first instinct. “Yeah, I saw a lab and a dark room but I couldn’t see in it, and some hallways. It looks like our work area back there but bigger. What’s it for?”
He smiled. “Just if the city ever gets bigger.” I could see a storm behind his eyes as he gave me an untruth.”
I smiled and walked down the stairs. I slid my arm into Lyle’s, gripping him tightly. My mouth was dry.
Lyle wrapped his arm around mine and kissed the top of my head. “You ready to go?”
I nodded into him. “I’m sleepy.” I glanced at Frank. “Do we start work tomorrow?”
“You do. Are you ready to learn how the city runs and the sacrifices we make as leaders?”
I nodded again. “I am.”
His face lightened up. He believed my untruths.
When we got back to our house, I gave Lyle a sly smile. “Want to take a swim with me?”
He gave me a grin. “Yeah.” He pointed. “We have a pool in the building.”
I nodded. “I know. Lisabeth told me.”
We grabbed our bathing suits and ran to the elevator, playful and alive. My heart was in my throat.
We held hands until we reached the change rooms. I went into the girls’ and he the boys.’ I changed fast, stuffing my clothes into a cubby. I wondered where Bran was. I was missing him less and less. The weird love manipulation they had done on me was making me like Lyle, and think of him more than Bran. I didn’t know how I really felt about that. I had thought it was gone but it wasn’t. Unless I was thinking about him because I wanted to.
I stepped out of the change room in my bathing suit. It was the same one all girls got. Blue and shiny with slim straps. I hated the way it pinched my upper thighs from the way it went around them.
He walked out in his bathing suit. His was long to his knees. Boys’ shiny silver bathing suits covered far more than girls.’ I felt naked in mine. Not to mention, mine was skintight and his was baggy and comfortable looking.
He ran toward me, grabbing my arm and pulling me into the completely flat pool. I screamed as I broke the surface of the cool water. I dunked him when he came up. He laughed, going under, grabbing my ankle and pulling me down too.
When we came up, we were awkward. I could feel it. I wiped the water from my face as he swam to me. “What did you see?”
I looked around, wondering if we were being watched. Or if they even needed to. Our thumbs told them where we went.
He swam closer, wrapping my legs around him. It was beyond intimate. I kissed the side of his face, whispering, “A lady that looked identical to Lisabeth. She was dead in a glass bed, like in the labs. There was a blue light and she floated in a liquid.”
I kissed the other side of his face. “She wasn’t like us though. She was different.”
He pulled back from me, looking deeply into my eyes. “You are so beautiful.”
I blushed and looked down. His forehead pressed against mine. I nodded. “She was huge, much taller than me, almost by double. She had huge features and a pointed head.”
When I looked up, he made a face. “We should visit my parents before work, you know? I mean, who knows how intense it’s going to be, and when we’ll get back out there? And I want you to get to know them. Now that they are the same class as you and going to be family, maybe.”
I nodded. “Good idea.”
He winked. “Ten laps and we go?”
I dunked him again and swam over his body. Even with my head start, he finished far faster than I did. He always was better at athletics and exercise than me. Than anyone—besides maybe Tyler. Amber was good for a girl. We were weaker; there was no doubt. It was something we accepted as a group.
I dragged myself from the pool moaning, “I am still not enjoying exercise. My mother told me one day I would learn to love it. That day has not come. Exercise and mornings.”
He shook his head. “Grab your stuff. We can change upstairs.”
I wrapped myself in a towel and carried my things to the door where he was waiting. I could see him processing the things I had said.
The elevator was silent, and when we changed, he was lost in it.
It got worse when we left the building for the tram station.
“What did her skin look like?”
I shrugged. “Ours, I guess. There was a blue light shining on her and it was dark, so it was hard to see exactly. She was very large. Twice the size of me but not fat. Like her hands were two of mine and her face was two of mine. She was almost identical to Lisabeth except the size and the pointed head. It was like an egg but a bit pointier. I don’t know, she seemed like us and then not at all.”
He bit his lip, pulling me to the tram. We rode in silence.
I sat there, still and frightened until we stopped at my old stop. My heart burned as the vision of her red dress floating in the breeze clawed through my mind.
I didn’t know how long I sat there with it blocking my view, but he tugged at my hand, pulling me from it. I looked up to see the tram stop for his parents.’ I stood and let him drag me off. The area was beautiful. The houses were large and fancy. It was the goal of all people to live there. We strived as a whole to become one of the select few who would live there. It wasn’t unheard of for a farmer’s son to become a physician or one of the politicians. It was the goal. Life was easier the higher you went and everyone worked for the chance at it. If a child went to the upper classes, he or she brought their parents with them. They would live out their life in comfort—well, until it was time to move to the homes. But their child could change the fate of one family. Everyone worked for that possibility.
His parents’ house was massive with bricks on the front. I liked it. It was stylish, I supposed.
Bran opened the front door with a grin for us both. My brow knit together just as Lyle’s grip on my hand tightened.
“Hey there, love birds.”
Lyle chuckled, but never spoke until he had walked us both to the backyard. It was stunning.
“You here for dinner?” Lyle asked.
Bran nodded. “Yeah and bringing the fruit in for the classes. Your dad is going to still have it delivered.” As we walked in the front door, he shrugged. “Gotta keep up the pretense of me delivering fruit every day.” His eyes lowered to meet mine. My stomach hurt and before I knew what I was doing, I dropped Lyle’s hand.
“She’s dead,” I whispered.
He clenched his jaw and shook his head. “No.”
I nodded, fighting my tears.
“Hanging from a tree on the road away from the wall.”
His eyes grew more intensely green as they sparkled with moisture that he didn’t let run down his face like I was. “Are you sure?”
Lyle nodded. “We went and looked.”
Bran sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
I wiped my face. “I have to get out there.”
Lyle’s and Bran’s fathers walked into the backyard where we stood. They looked at the three of us, frowning. “What?”
Lyle took a deep breath and began explaining the whole situation, minus forcing me to see Amber and Brooke being kicked out of the city. He focused on what I had seen in the lab. My eyes never left Bran’s. The sadness on his face was t
ragic. I wondered if I looked the same way. I glanced at Lyle finally, as the story found its way to me hiding in a dark room behind the bed of a woman who glowed pale blue.
“So she was dead?”
I shrugged. “I suppose she was. She was in liquid.”
Bran’s father’s face tightened. “Then it’s something we don’t know about.”
Lyle’s father eyeballed me. “You sure you want to be part of this?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to be, but I have no choice.” I didn’t say that I would never let my friend hang from a tree on an untraveled road, instead of being burned and sent to the stars.
He watched me with an uncertain look on his face. Finally, he nodded. “I have to show you what you need to know, and I only have about two hours before they will expect you both to be back.” With that, he turned and walked back into the house. Everyone watched me. I didn’t know what to do, so I followed Mr. Getty into the other room. He walked into the kitchen and opened a pantry door. He walked down a set of stairs, putting his finger to his lips before he rounded the corner and left my view.
I followed him down, silently. The pantry was sealed behind me. I watched as it went dark in the narrow staircase. I felt along the wall until I made it to the underground room. A light flickered in the corner of the room. It was made of fire. I hadn’t ever seen anything like it.
“It’s a candle,” he muttered as he made the fire burn on another. He put it on a dingy brown table. In the flickering light, he seemed even more frightening.
“I can make it so you forget again if you want it. You can start fresh with Lyle,” he whispered.
I paused, imagining what my life would be like without the image of Amber swaying from a tree. Her red dress would no longer haunt every moment of my day and night, as I expected it would. I swallowed and shook my head. “No.” If I didn’t remember her, who would? Who would free her body from the tree?
A creepy smile slipped across his lips. “Rare to see such strength in a female.”
I nodded. I knew it to be true. I had rarely seen strong females. Mrs. Barker had been one I imagined to be strong, but my imaginations were wrong. When she was tested, she failed.
His eyes lifted from the ancient looking piece of paper on the table. They met mine with ferocity. “If you want to be part of this, then you need to know what you are against and the part I actually need you to play.”
I swallowed hard. “You know what the lady was in the glass bed?”
He shook his head. “I don’t, but I need to explain something to you and make you understand.” He sat on a stool next to the table. “My family has never been able to reset. Something is wrong inside of us that is untraceable. As long as we don’t let on, we cannot reset. My son and Bran are the latest in our family, and they are the way to make all of this madness end. We have fought our way to the top. My father and my grandfather and my great grandfather were farmers. They learned early on that remembering was bad. So they believed staying low in class would be the best way to hide it. But it’s not true. They don’t search the higher ranks for the problem. The engineers are arrogant in their belief that their tests are foolproof.” He laughed slightly. “But they are not. I used my gift to get from the farm to this class. I brought my parents here, till they forced my father and mother to the homes.” He scoffed and shook his head. “Lyle and Bran are even better at hiding it than we were. My station in life affords me access to knowledge but through it all, I play a part.” His blue eyes set on me, like they were examining me. “You understand that?”
I nodded.
He nodded with me. “I play a part and I cannot ever let Lyle into it, not all of it. Just like he should have kept you out of his part. He and Bran should have let you be unaware. That would have guaranteed your safety. I wanted you to trust Bran and Lyle, but I have a feeling they have strayed and showed you too much. I have been training them since they were tiny for a moment just like this.” His eyes flickered to the dark ceiling. “It has cost dearly, but I would sacrifice it again and again to end this.” His eyes lowered to me. “You know what it is like to be forced to marry someone you do not love?”
I didn’t move.
He smirked. “I suppose you do.”
I winced. I hated that he saw that on me. I would never disrespect his son like that.
He pressed his lips together for a moment before sighing. “We drove Lyle’s mother insane making Bran and Lyle learn to fit in. She has memories she should not, from the things I made them learn. She loves me more than anything in the entire world, but it’s not real love. I have not loved her for one day. Not one. The forced love doesn’t work on me or anyone like me.” He sighed again, nodding. “That feels amazing to get it off my chest.” His blue eyes shone in the flickering light, “No one knows that.”
I shook my head. “I won’t tell a soul.”
His smile turned bitter. “I know you won’t. You won’t get the chance.” My stomach turned but he continued.
“Lyle must be the new Adam for our people. They must use his tainted blood to make the next generation. That is the way to free our world. When a large portion of the babies made in the next twenty years have come from his seed, we will be the majority. There will be less and less people who the reset works on. By then, Lyle will be the superior engineer.” His eyes darted to me. “You see how long this plan has been in effect?”
I nodded, still scared of where that was going.
“You are the problem. You remember things now, but you are sloppy at this. I have heard your name mentioned today. Lyle is wasting his efforts trying to protect you, when he could be working against the engineers. The stunt today of disappearing and using your thumb to open doors you should not have has no doubt sealed your fate. They were already talking about you going into the tunnels with both a mystery guy and Lyle. You need to think about this and how much bigger it is than you. This is the whole population of the world in one city being ruled and controlled. You cannot let your mistakes seal his and everyone else’s. I need you to sacrifice yourself and protect him.”
I blinked a single tear down my face. I didn’t dare tell him that it was his son and his nephew that made me bad at it. Or that it was them who dragged me into the tunnels. It was them that showed me the things I didn’t need to see.
The firelight on the stick made it hot in the low ceiling room.
“The world ended once a long time ago. Greed, hate, pain, and prejudice ruined everything. Someone made a decision to stop remembering and you know, they say the day after the memories were taken, there was world peace in what was left of the broken world. No one remembered being angry or hating, or feeling anything. From that day forward, the world has been at peace.” His eyes burned when he looked at me. “But I don’t believe that. I know that it is not true. I remember every day of the last fifty years and I can tell you, there is no peace. We just don’t know about the terrible things they do to us.”
My lip trembled. I nodded. “I see that now.”
“If Lyle thinks you love him at all, he will come after you. Do you understand that? He is the hope of humanity. Do you realize how many decades we have been waiting for someone like him to come and free us all? Lyle would throw all of that away for you.”
A slight sob escaped my lips as I nodded.
“Bran too. They both are so taken with you. I see why. You are a brave girl, and I am sorry to ask this of you. But you see, don’t you? Whatever is floating in that glass bed, I guarantee it’s why we are here like this. That thing is the cause of our problem.” His lip trembled. He wasn’t scary—he was scared.
I nodded. He made a sound and pointed at the paper on the table. “This is a map. I stole it once a long time ago. I have heard the people who are forced from the city have a place they call home. There is a road from the gates of the wall.” He held the firelight stick over the paper and pointed. I was so removed from the moment, I could barely focus on the skinny line drawn on the paper. He d
ragged his finger across an open space. “If you go this way there are caves and that is the road to The Lost City. It is what they call it. I believe if you go there, they will help you. Women are the main people kicked out from the city. They won’t search you; take a single knife and hide it in your clothes.”
I looked at the skinny line and knew how far I would make it. I knew that road. There was a tree with a way to die along the road.
His hand shot out into the dark, grabbing mine and squeezing with its roughness. “You must remember to make certain he knows you do not love him. You could never.”
I looked at our hands. “What will become of him?”
He shook his head. “There is always a backup Adam and a backup Eve picked, just in case. They will replace you with her.”
“Will they try to make him love her too?”
He nodded. “They will.”
I stared at the piece of paper again, but I didn’t need to. I didn’t need to know the road to the city, but I didn’t know where else to look. My heart was not hurting anymore; it was blank. Hollow. Gone. I had a million questions that no longer mattered.
I nodded. “I will do this, but I do not want to stay here with you and go over the plan. I want to go and say goodbye to my parents, before it’s too late at night.”
He smiled. “You are a good girl, Gwyndolyn. I wish I could have been your father-in-law and you could have been the girl for my son.”
I blinked and wiped away my tears. I turned and walked back to the stairs.
“Wait.”
I stopped at the stairs and looked back. He looked old and tired in the poor light. “How will you do it?”
I sighed. “Tell them each I chose the other, and therefore, chose no one.”
He nodded. I walked into the darkness, ready to burst and sob. Instead, I gripped the knob of the panty door and stepped back out into the light.
I walked to the doorway and nodded at Bran. Lyle, his uncle, and mother were standing off to the side, pointing at a tree and discussing it. Bran caught my look and walked to the kitchen. I took his hand and pulled him to the hallway. I pressed my back against the wall, pulling him to me. I took a single breath of the orchard on his shirt and nodded. “I am in love with Lyle—real love. I’m sorry.”